Minnesota Vikings heading towards leadership changes after this season?

Minnesota Vikings heading towards leadership changes after this season?

it up or not. Purple Daily is daily Vikings entertainment. I just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. I will ride with this group. Seriously, man. Please. And away we go. All right. Happy Thor’s Day to all who celebrate here on Purple Daily. His name is Thor Nestrom from Score North and Thor Talks Purple, which is now four episodes in the first week of Thor Talks Purple. And uh we also have some other fun stuff coming down the pipeline here with Thor, a full-time member of our crew at Score North. You can check out Thor Talks Purple on the Thor Talks Purple Spotify Apple podcast feeds or wherever you find podcasts and the Scorn YouTube channel. And we’re gonna do a dive into a couple different things here on this episode after we shout out Padriggs. And Jud, I know Podigs is the official beer drinking hub of the Sports Dad, but also our next Purple Daily Unplugged event is happening at Padres’s on Thursday, December 18th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. It’s the Ugly Season Ugly Sweater Party edition of Purple Daily Unplugged. Wear your favorite ugly holiday or vintage sweater and you have uh chances to win prizes at Padres’s as well. You can hang out with us. Find out more at purpleaily.com/unplug. Purpleaily.com/unplug.jpadres. Yeah. And while while you’re there and it’s uh in the Old Land Nod Factory at the corner of Broadway and Central Avenues Northeast, by the way, while you’re there, what you’re going to get to do is you’re going to get to try beer. And you’re going to say, “Well, Sports Dad, big deal. It’s beer.” And I’m going to tell you, no, it is a big deal because it’s beer that tastes like beer. That’s right. the Red Chimney, the Patty’s Premium. What Padres’s does is they specialize in beer. They do not specialize in coming up with the newest 18 creations of different type of drinks. Now, these guys are in it for the beer. It is outstanding. So, uh come join us and also enjoy in in my case, I would say a red chimney, but whatever beer you want, Padres’s a delicious a delicious roster. Can I say it that way? Roster beers. A a 53. a delicious I don’t know if they have they don’t do 53. 53 is too many for Padres. They’re more like a basketball team. Just 12 studs of beer. Oh man. All right. So, let’s So, Thor, I know you did on your podcast yesterday, you uh on the first War Room Wednesday edition, you went through and did an audit exercise. And so I’d love to take like just kind of your fresh thoughts on looking at the 30,000 ft of where this team is at kind of from a front office standpoint. And I’d love to shine a flashlight right in the face of Ryan Griggsson for a second. I have I I just want to pose a couple questions here and I might maybe I’m putting Thor on the spot a little bit because you you don’t have the context for like maybe the rest of the league and percentages here, but Ryan Griggson has overseen five drafts with the Indianapolis Colts as the general manager. 2012 was his first draft. He got hired in January. Of course, they had the number one pick just gift wrapped in the form of Andrew Luck that year. Uh, so five drafts with the Colts and he’s now been the highest ranking football guy in the Vikings front office for three additional drafts 2023, 24, and 25. Let’s take 25 out because it’s so hard to tell. You could even maybe like take 24, but like I’m going to take 25 out and I’ll give you 51. I’m not going to read them all, but 51 players drafted under the watch of Ryan Griggson, football guy, top of front office, or in this case, next to Quasy, right? Three Pro Bowlers, if my counting is right, three Pro Bowlers out of 51 picks. Andrew Luck was one of them. And again, I don’t I mean for you like any any of us would have selected Andrew Luck. So, all right. Yep. Ty Hilton was a third round receiver. Awesome pick. Awesome. He kind of nailed it. He kind of nailed the 2012 draft a little bit. Uh and then Ryan Kelly in 2016 was multi-time Pro Bowler and without the health issues, one of the best centers in the league. So, awesome credit for well for two of those picks for sure. And then I counted like six or seven additional guys out of 51 that were relatively highlevel contributors for multiple years with either the Colts or now recently with the Vikings. He nailed for the most part two tight ends in 2012 in Kobe Fleiner and Dwayne Allen who was kind of a a backupish tight end but a good player for a few years. Dante Monreef was a mid-round pick in 2012. All right, that hit. Uh Jordan Addison I’ll say is a hit. Will Riker with the Vikings is a hit. I’m going to say Dallas Turner was a hit. And then you know what? I’m even going to I’m generous this holiday season. I’m going to call Levi Drake Rodriguez a hit at this point from the 2024 draft. I combed up and down dudes like I don’t know. He might fight and say, “Well, here’s three or four other guys that were like fairly decent contributors.” But it is a fact out of 51 players drafted Colts Vikings under the watch of Griggsson, three Pro Bowlers, one of them is Andrew Luck and a few other sniffs in and around the couch cushions beyond that. I mean, should we be Quy’s the big talker here and Kevin Okonnell. I mean, Jud’s been on Griggsson for a couple years. What are your thoughts? It’s bad. You look at the record, it’s bad. Uh, he gets no credit for Andrew Luck. That was because the team stunk the year before it. That was the most obvious pick of the last 20 years was Andrew Luck and the whoever got that one that year. I was hoping that the Vikings were going to, you know, lose lose lose and get to the top. Didn’t happen. But yeah, so that was a freebie. Um Ryan Kelly, it was the draft’s best center that year. Um so that one hard for me to get, you know, you’re going to take a first round center. Usually there’s only one if there is one. Uh Ty Hilton is the pick I’ll give him a lot of credit for. That was a really really good pick. uh TI Hilton was coming out of the G5. So that that was a slick bit of scouting. The rest of it is is pretty grizzly. Uh when you you look up and down, at least the Colts tenure. Um and the the Vikings one, I mean the the fans know I mean the past four years with the drafting, there’s been quite a bit of misses. Um Levi Drake Rodriguez certainly um you give a thumbs up on that one. But yeah, there’s not not many positive signs. Uh looking around and and and this goes into the other thing of like who is responsible. There’s more stuff with this this week where there’s the stories coming out of like oh the coaching staff has a lot more input in in the draft picks than and it’s like well yeah we know but we we want to get we want to know who is respon this why we want to do the audit we want to know each one of the picks where did it come from and was Ryan Griggson a contributing factor or or the factor in the selection of a lot of these misses. Hey Thor, before Jud responds, can you move your left ear or right ear a little closer to your Texas and Texas A&M helmets there so we can No, the other way. The other way. There we go. A little further. A little further. Little more slide. There we go. There we go. We got the Thor slide. We want to get you centered up, right? So that if if one of these glorious takes uh really hits, we can put it on social media frame for takes. All right. All right. Was I totally out of the frame? Demo wasn’t even it was half your face. We’re mechanics, you know. Your mechanics just need a little little fixing. That’s all. Boys, the cement hasn’t dried yet. So, don’t don’t give up. I mean, don’t give up on me, Jud. Thor, you know what? Line up wherever you want. I just want you to have fun in this show, okay? Like, I mean, you can be off camera. Hey, some back to podcasting, you know? Just complete just complete some takes, okay? We just want you to complete the takes. Okay. Um, okay. Where were we? All right. So, I don’t think like the thing to me though is the Vikings definitely took a chance here because they hired a non-traditional GM and then they brought in a football guy. And to Phil’s point, my my point was the football guy is not a guy I exactly trust. I mean, we used to rip on Griggsson when he worked for the Colts and we do a Viking show. So, I didn’t exactly trust that. But um you know I also think that there is an overall and this is probably the problem. It feels like and this is just a guess the collaboration fact has gone too far because like we know for a fact that you know in the third round which is a very good pick in the third round of this past April’s draft that West Chandler is pounding the table for Ty Felton. You know we got to draft this guy. I saw him I love him. Blah blah. and and and Wes Chandler, make no mistake, a good position coach, but you know, Ty Felton, I looked this up yesterday. I believe he has played 18 offensive snaps. 18 offensive snaps. Third round pick. Seventh round pick. Okay, I get it. Um, and it feels like the majority of the guys are are like, “Well, but they’re playing on special teams, but that’s not why you draft guys on the first two days.” So, I think what we might need is more of a I hate to say it because they the Vikings had it. it wouldn’t be this guy. But I think what we probably need is more of a Rick Spielman type of football figure who understands what he’s looking at. And because input is great, but I don’t think that you can I don’t think that you can be a GM through consensus. Like I think eventually you have to know what you’re looking at and make a decision. And it feels like Quazy gets so much input and then he’s like, “Okay, here’s what I think that we should do based on what 18 people just told me.” So So this is why I think it’s not working. and and you can give Quazy a pass and say, “Well, but they’re not his, but at the end of the day, he’s responsible for them.” So, and with uh with Doogie on the bonus PD thought that we did today, and you would be the perfect guy for this, I think it’s time to put together a list of lieutenants and right-hand men and women in various front offices and start to look at where you want to pill for Quasy’s replacement from because it’s not going to be probably an existing GM. And quite frankly, I don’t think there’s a need to go to the well of this guy ran the Saints from 72 to 74 and so bring him back. So I I think what we need to look at is bright young executives who are football guys. Case in point, boys, Elliot Wolf with the Patriots. Ron Wolf’s kid was with the Packers, was with the Browns, got the Patriots job. I think the Wolves talk to him every time he walks in the room. That sounder guy that sounder plays. But I’m just I think I think we are at the point here now of having to look at potential candidates who would be good young bright football people. Makes sense to me. Yeah. Um and and the next time around maybe get a guy that that scouts football players, right? that um you know like part part of the issue with this is you know like like you’re mentioning if if you’re the analytics guy and and you don’t the the film work is being sort of outsourced to people around you and then you’re sort of weighing their opinions and and that’s you know that that’s how you your your decision-m paradigm. Uh first of all it’s it’s really tough uh for you know after the fact this whole audit thing or like who was responsible for each pick that you have to sort of untangle that. So, that’s one issue. And then another one, you brought up the Ty Felton one, so I’ll just go there for a specific example. But like in that that that draft, you were uh the last one. You had the third round comp pick and right in front of you, bang bang, went two players that that would have helped this team that they desperately this season uh in Jared Wilson, the center who then was uh shifted to guard, selected by the affforementioned uh Elliot Wolf with the Patriots, and then Xavier Watts, a safety from Notre Dame, who uh would have been a a ready-made replacement eventually for uh Harrison Smith. and he could have played this season as well, but he’s the center field safety. But those guys go bang bang and you wonder if they were sitting dead red on one of those guys. They end up trading back uh a little bit and then they end up taking Ty Felton just a little bit later in the comp stanza but at the very end of of of the third round and you wonder if if if they did indeed get sniped and there was a little bit of panic in that room of like, oh dang, you know, bang bang in front of us and okay, let’s let’s regroup with a small trade back. And then at that point, if that’s what it is and you were sort of earmarking that pick for the last couple hours for, you know, for one of these guys released a lot, you know, leading up to it, then does it become in the room when you don’t have your own conviction? You are outsourcing your conviction and then weighing other people’s conviction in the moment. does that open up the possibility of someone doing a fullcourt press on you for a specific player or or outcome or whatever and you don’t know exactly how much work they’ve done on a guy or you don’t know how good they are at evaluating their their long-term sort of uh success rate and stuff like that and I think you get that’s how we they’ve gotten into some uh situations where you have seen some reaches. Should we should we ask Thor the same question we posed to Doogie toward the end of our Doogie episode? Or do you think it’ll be too shocking for the for the public to hear? Oh, let’s hear it. Let’s do it. All right. Well, red, same parameters. Same parameters for Thor. You can’t you don’t get the option to judify it by choosing a third option that’s off the board. This is This is so I mean, come on. I’ve never done that. Jud feels unslighted by this accusation. Um, you get two options. Two options. Option one is Quacy and Ryan Griggsson as the top level tandem running that football ops department remain intact for the next let’s say couple years and you ride forward with those guys or you call the Jets and ask to talk to their senior football adviser his name is Rick Spielman and you say it’s like a consultant right I mean he’s not like a you know he’s not like under contract or anything right and plus it’d be an elevation you’d be bringing him back as the general manager. Would you rather have Rick Spielman back running the football ops department with Kevin O’Connell staying as the head coach? I’m not firing Kevin in this equation. Or you keep everything intact with Quy and Ryan Griggson. I’m sorry. I don’t want Spielman back. Um Oh, okay. A twist. I’m will I I in that case I’d ride it out but I do the audit first and if Griggsson was was responsible for a lot of those picks. Uh well we’ll keep them because we have to in this scenario but you got you got to sit in the corner and you don’t get to talk or give us give us your board so we know who not to pick. Oh thanks for the board. Just you turn it upside down and you put it up on the wall. Right. You really need to put it backwards so it’s just facing the wall and just white is facing you. the white board part. Oh, and I mean I So my I think all of us kind of kicked around on the Dukey episode like I mean Spielman So Spielman nailed a lot of first and second round picks for a long stretch. I think there was a couple dry drafts at the end there. Um but but the biggest things the the reasons why he got fired in the first place, the two biggest reasons were him and Mike Zimmer had completely lost their relationship and had a complete falling out were on non-speaking terms and Rick by his own admission and by our own eyes watching football had an impossible time figuring out the quarterback position long term beyond just Cousins as a stop gap. And if you can make the argument that Rick Rick’s been like fairly good at building rosters over the years and just couldn’t figure out quarterback, well, okay, listen, Kevin, whether it’s McCarthy or M. Jones or some combination, you’re you’ve been the quarterback guy, you’ll figure it out. And it might just be me thinking the grass is greener. They’ve whiffed on so many draft picks at this point. But, um, maybe the real answer is jutifying it and like Jeb was laying out and just surveying what that list looks like. If this isn’t working with your current front office, get a football person in Oh, Rick had did have uh many problems at the quarterback thing. Remember when he forced uh Zimmer to take uh Kell Mann? Can you imagine what with that with Kevin Okano? And and Spielman’s like, “No, no, I got a conviction. I I sat across from him in Mobile. Just trust me.” Like the look in that kid’s eye. And Okano’s like, “No, I don’t want him.” And he’s like, “Nope, sorry. You’re going to have to take him.” The fact that Yeah. The fact that we now know that Zimmer left the building, got in his truck, and went home after that pick is is is such an alltimer. I wish it had gotten out immediately because I mean, my god, what a great story. How many how in in the history or in the Super Bowl era, as we call it? All right, so starting with 1970, um, how many coaches do you think active coaches have left the draft facility during the draft and just gone home? Yeah, I mean it might be one. I’ve I’ve I’ve I’ve I’ve never heard of that. Um, you know, outside of outside of that one right there. Yeah. Never heard of that one. And I have one other thing to say, by the way. You know, like the the Thor haters in the comments sometimes they’ll be like, “Oh, that guy like Josh Rosen and that guy like Malik Willis and that guy like Kell Mont.” No, I like the first two. I didn’t like Kell Mont. I hated that pick and it won’t draw the line. Damn it. Yeah, you can accuse me absolutely of Love Rosen at the time of Balique Willis. But Kell Mont, get out of here. I was screaming about that when I hated the Kellen mom picking the I got in my car and then I tried to drive to Zimmer’s house to you know console him but I I didn’t know where the guy live. That’s awesome. Just find uh find the western Kentucky somewhere. Uh do not take me with love and Kell man. Yeah, you can look back at my boards of those years. I hated Kell coming out. Yeah, man. The disdain that Zimmer showed for for that guy was uh was quite incredible. I see him every day. Yeah. What So what made press conference? Yeah. Did you see the game? See the game? Yeah, man. Um, so let’s Okay, let’s move into the to the the McCarthy part of the conversation because now not now the season’s over in terms of like playoffs and Kevin Oonnell has gone into major self-reflection mode. Kevin Seafford actually has a piece this morning on this this Thursday morning on ESPN.com laying out Kevin Oonnell reflecting on this offense and passing game bottoming out. it is the worst passing game in the NFL from a noted quarterback and passing guru and uh and so sort of what all goes into that and what next. So I think my question to you Thor is what do these next five games mean for JJ McCarthy? What would have to happen for the Vikings to say after if he plays all five games, yep, he is the 100% unquestioned starter in 2026. Or is that not achievable over this five game sample? Um, no progress, of course, developmental progress. And I I like, you know, it took a while. I it did. But I I like that we have now started to see some coach self-reflection and even, you know, gas, but coaches putting their hands up and saying, “Yeah, may maybe we maybe we made some mistakes there as opposed to pointing that the fingers back at the players.” So I, you know, I’ve appreciated that. And this isn’t just about McCarthy. You know, Okonnell, you know, for instance, said, “I botched that one with the fourth and one call with Bromer and and rolling him out.” Um Kevin Okonnell really has never had to look in the mirror this much um you know, in terms of that stuff. So, no, I I that stuff you like. And then as far as uh McCarthy that it seems also like that is indicative and and Okonnell has said this too about further alterations that he’s going to make to the offense. Some of them in the beginning of the season, you know, sort of begrudgingly, but uh he was saying that the thing this week about like, you know, uh things that he’ll see on film or or some downfield opportunities, but maybe we need to tailor the thing more to um the personnel that we have on hand. um which is something that we’ve been advocating for a while with more uh quick hitting concepts, maybe some more manufactured touches, not just the thing of like screen pass is is our thing and we’re sort of telegraphing that we’re going to screen and then we’re going to go right back to the downfield concepts. So at least that opens up the possibility um you know that that we could get uh some improvement down here uh down the stretch. Got to see it this weekend. This is a big weekend I think for McCarthy. You know, coming back off the concussion, but if you have an opportunity to to play well um and to show out, this is the game to do it against the Washington Commanders at home. I think uh uh they’re something like uh the 31st graded defense on PFF. Uh you look at all the and and I know that if any Commander fans are listening, they’ll be like, “Well, last couple weeks with Dan Quinn, we’ve done a little bit better.” And sure, they they have, but like overall that defense has been terrible uh this year. um and and you can have you can go at the their boundary cornerbacks uh and succeed. So, I I think this is a a big week, but obviously the last five weeks are as well. McCarthy has to show uh developmental steps and hopefully we also see uh steps from Okonnell more mirroring his system to JJ McCarthy’s game. Um and and and trying to meet more in the middle with that possible hot take. I believe that the Vikings like from Okonnell and what he’s saying, first of all, I think somebody talked to him. I don’t think this self-reflection is just him uh praying one one night and God the next day saying Kevin take some responsibility. I think somebody talked to him about the approach. Would not be surprised if it is somebody very high. I don’t know this in the organization. But here here’s my possible hot take. I think they’ve largely made a decision about what they’re going to do after the season. And I and I think McCarthy is going to be on the roster. Um, but I think there’s a very good chance that they bring in a guy that they think can start and that they’re going to have him sit for another season and we can debate that. But, but here’s my issue, okay? If what they’re going to do, like, let’s just say, and we have to see it first, but let’s just say, guys, that Okonnell follows through and and he simplifies things and he’s not all about, hey, your your left foot sort of lifted oddly on this play, so think about that next time. And let’s just say that they go to a simpler concept game. I don’t believe for one second that that’s Oonnell’s like long-term fix then. Um, and I don’t think he can help himself. So, so unfortunately until I see it proven completely differently, I just don’t know the marriage of Okonnell and McCarthy is anything like I thought. Uh, but I sort of heard a guy at the podium yesterday and talking about having fun and completing passes who was sort of acknowledging, okay, this is how we’re going to end this, but he’s a very stubborn guy. I don’t think that he thinks, you know what, then I’m gonna fix him. I think now he thinks I might not be a able to fix him. So, we very well might be going a different route as far as our starter next season. If that happens, I I I would hope, you know, they they would have tanked the the value of the asset at that point. But, I I I would hope that they would trade him at that point if that’s a decision that they make. Um, you know, again, you’re going to have to sell low, but I don’t see how that’s tenable. um with with you know now you’re in your third season, it’s going to be your second year. We’re going to send you back on the bench. Last year you only had half you’re going to pull the plug on the kid after 10 games. Um Kevin Okcono then you can no longer trust the things he says publicly. The thing of organization, you know, young quarterbacks don’t fail the organization after 10 games. You pull the plug on him. Um that to to me at that point, you got to trade him. Um that’s the only thing, Jud, where you know I know that you think that that it’s he’s going to be QB2 next year. We just don’t see that often in the NFL when when you end up pulling the plug on a guy. Um, you know, more often you see like the the you know, sort of like a Josh Rosen trade, they would have to sell low at that point. Um, and and that’s the thing where you’re starting to look around, you’re like, well, Kevin Oonnell picked the guy. He should be in charge of his development. Um, and it went poorly for 10 games and and now he wants to go back to the easier thing. uh where it there does not seem to be a clear road to becoming a Super Bowl caliber contending team that could make it there. That’s I I would sort of bristle with that. But yeah, I mean it it could be the case, but I I wonder if they would trade McCarthy as opposed to then uh QB2 if that was the scenario. It is interesting just kind of circling back over to what Jud said that they’ve it it felt like a month or a month and a half ago the way Kevin Okonnell was talking about McCarthy coming off the high ankle sprain and the footwork. You know, some of it was at what point is he healthy enough to be cleared to play against Detroit at the time. But the other big part of it I felt from Okonnell was, hey, his me like we’re going to be working one-on-one with his mechanics during the by-week because he has to get to a certain level of consistency mechanics wise to be able to like go out there and perform at a certain at a certain uh level and doing your job for you. Josh McConn is I think what he was saying with that thing. Yeah. Well, that’s the other thing. It’s like Josh Macau was this lauded the guy was getting head coaching run a couple three years ago, four years ago with the Texans and um I just you know it’s like what either McCarthy is is just completely unable to soak in anything that the Vi like the Vikings have done all they can for two years and he’s just like not getting it or they have failed him behind the scenes. And I mean, I’m not behind the curtain enough to to know which way that needle leans. But my point is, how did we go from a month ago, hey man, like these mechanics are such a train wreck that like we we got to get to a certain point before we even feel comfortable with him running a a show here to ah just go out there and sling it around and play football. We’re probably inundating you too much mentally with the mechanic stuff. That feels like a wide leap over the past 5 weeks or so. It’s 180 degree, right? I mean like again for a month and a half people were like oh you know what’s what JJ how is he feeling this week oh the mechanics got to get the mechanics and it’s like we’re asking you about the sprained ankle now I want to talk about the mechanics and and want to talk about the mispractice when he had the kid and and he wasn’t prepared for the Atlanta game and like all this different stuff and and now he’s like oh maybe maybe we should be easy on the 22-y old man let’s just not not as much stuff to think about like let’s just let him go out and play ball. It it is just totally different. It’s like a different kind of person now is is is talking. And that’s why I think it’s important like like yes, what he says is fine, but I think it’s it’s to what Phil is trying to do and I agree with tie it all together, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. like like if you put the thread and I wonder now because there there are things that will come up now that with more knowledge of where things have gone become more intriguing to talk about. I wonder if the whole thing with his son being born Rome right with Rome being born um the week of the Falcons game and then Okonnell admitting that the Wednesday because it was a Monday night game was a walkthrough and really he had one practice and he missed the third down installation. I wonder if that was also on Okonnell’s part wishful thinking of that performance was terrible. So I think it’s because he wasn’t prepared because then like as you went to the Packers game, I mean the Packers game was awful. Um and I wonder if Okonnell I wonder if he realized at some point in time for what he wanted he had stepped in it with JJ and that he and that he was trying to blame the birth of his child and McCarthy missing time on hey that’s why he looked bad. But then it’s like as it progressed it’s like okay it’s not really picking up and in fact it’s regressing. Like there’s a lot of things to tie together here. And this is why I keep coming back to is this simply a case of the marriage isn’t going to work like we thought. And furthermore Kevin Oonnell might be as as adept at he is of taking reclamation projects. He might not be the right guy. Ironically, from what he said, for a young quarterback, cuz at least those reclamation projects have been like they’ve been speaking the language and seeing the speed and processing NFL games for a minimum of all these examples seven years. Yes, Nick Mullins had been Nick Mullen, not he wasn’t a reclamation project. He was a backup, but that dude had at least been in NFL camps and been playing in games and starting some for seven years. And same for Sam Darnell. You could say, “Well, he didn’t do anything before he came to the Vikings.” I mean, he was bad before he came to the Vikings, but he had been in the league for seven years or 6 years before he came to the Vikings. And I think working with quarterbacks with that level of experience, that’s like longer than the average NFL lifespan that those guys had been in the league for. And even if they hadn’t performed at a high level, going through that number of weeks and preparations and practice and film study and seeing the speed of it, being on the freeway, if you will, it’s a different and we’ve never done it, but like I would assume my educated guess would be that teaching those players concepts is a much different exercise than teaching a guy coming in in his early 20s who’s never been on that freeway before. Yeah, that’s it. Um, I I think you have here a young quarterback that uh he needed a good quarterback coach and really he also needed to not get injured his first year, but obviously we can’t do anything with that. But at Michigan um first quarterback coach that McCarthy had for his first two years. I I believe that guy’s on trial right now. Um he there was some scandal as far as him hacking into students something or other. Um, and and I had heard I don’t I don’t even want to say his name because I I I actually forget it and I don’t want to I don’t want to miss it, but his first quarterback coach at Michigan. Um, and then the the last year um it was a different guy. Well, that guy then was elevated to uh offensive coordinator of the year after JJ left. Well, then he got fired. Those are his two quarterback uh coaches at Michigan. I heard that the the tutelage that he got with that was not very good. Um particularly the first guy who didn’t appear to be uh as interested with football. And then you go to the NFL and this kid that always wanted to play in the NFL obviously he gets the knee injury and it just see again and this sucks to say um it certainly wasn’t depicted this way but it just seems like it was a less developmental year where they there there wasn’t much um you know again toutelage or I know you can’t have him on the field practicing the first year when he’s got the torn meniscus I get that but it seems like he was sort of left off alone in the building to sort of do his own thing where then he started McCarthy started taking his own initiatives because nothing was being given to him to do and that’s the thing of like writing down you know the notes on all the different defenders they were playing and the schemes and the coaches and uh the different stuff of uh uh creating relationship with all the teammates and and different stuff like that but that VR thing that they said they were going to do I’ve I’ve heard that they didn’t do that. Um, and again, there wasn’t much stuff with the coaches. And so, again, you had the the youngest quarterback in that class, the the awesome uh 20 uh 24 class, and then missing the first year. Um, he hadn’t played, you know, the quarterback coaching was not great uh at at Michigan. Now, he played for Jim Harbaugh, but I’m talking about the position coach, right? And when we’re talking about these things like mechanics and stuff like that. Um, and to this point in his career in the NFL, it just doesn’t seem like uh much work had been done with that or at least much productive work. My question too at this point is what is what is the the clock ticking or what is the patience conversely as well because again I don’t see Okonnell I don’t see Oonnell taking Sunday. Let’s just say he simplifies it. I don’t see him saying you know what this is me as a coach now. Damn it. I’m Mrs. simplification. I’m going to have I’m going to change how I think drive the ball downfield who’s got two thumbs and loves to simplify. Yeah, I’m simplifying. So, so the other question and and this is a real question. If Kevin Oonnell is going to be your coach is assuming that he works with McCarthy when they can in the springtime and they come back and let’s say he’s playing McCarthy is next year, where is Okonnell going with his expectations? Because if he’s like, I’m going right back boys to where I was. we’re going to drive the ball down the field and we’re going to do this and that. Then again, I’ll go back to what I said. The marriage is not going to work in my opinion cuz you don’t have endless time. This is National Football League. Not for long. So, you don’t have like let’s let’s give it all a 26, but in 27, wait and see. The Wolves are going to be like, “That’s BS.” Justin Jefferson, same thing. But just quickly, boys, you talk about a league that comes at you fast. Okay? You talk about a league that comes at you at the speed of sound. Let’s go back right now to the 2024 the top of the draft. All right. Caleb Williams developing. Awesome. Jaden Daniels, good quarterback, but he’s hurt. And he and and that was a problem before. And and as I forget if it was on our show, but somebody said, and they’re right. Year one, Jaden Daniels caught the league by surprise. Year two, the DCs who don’t come out of their offices in the springtime. They don’t come out and enjoy the sun. Yeah, Jeremiah made that point. Jeremiah said that. Jaden Daniels starts to get hit. He’s hurt. Drake May is great. All right. Vikings surprised by the fact that Michael Pennix went at eight. Well, guess what? Michael Pennix gets hurt a lot. He’s hurt again and we don’t know the severity. And then JJ. So, like you look at this sort of I don’t know if the best term is Russian roulette, but you look at this sort of okay, we got to take a quarterback. I just gave you three of them. If McCarthy was having a halfway decent year, our talker today would be his health. So, I just gave you three quarterbacks from that top 10 and every one of them has a problem even staying on the field. Yeah. Second year. Yeah. I mean, but I mean, that’s how it comes at you. Like, that’s the league. That’s it. Yeah. Um Yeah. And I, you know, obviously the Vikings, uh, and the the fan base has have proven to be a little bit impatient here. Uh, will, will they, you know, the Wils and then the fan, you all this stuff, will will you end up giving JJ another year? Um, I certainly believe that they should. Uh, you guys know how bullish I am on him long term. A lot of this stuff this year I feel is circumstantial. Um, and and a lot of the different uh, you know, contradictory comments that we get from the coaches and the I to me it’s indicative of that. um to pull the plug on the kid again coming off the year injury. He wins NFC offensive player of the week in his first game. His second game he gets injured again and then and then you know it’s it’s this the offensive line thing and the receiver thing and again has JJ played the best? No. But has it been worse than the other quarterback play? I mean eight total touchdowns, 10 interceptions for JJ. I think it’s six and nine with the nonJJ quarterbacks. The offense had been broken all season. Um sure you could go out and and you know again you trade for M. Jones or whatever. Where are you going then? Um, yeah. So, for for me, you you roll it through for one more year. Give Okonnell one more year with it with the guy that he picked in McCarthy. If it doesn’t work uh next year, that’s when you take the quarterback in 2027. The quarterback class in 2027 is really good. People out there, you want to get back on that that carousel of being in the NFL’s middle class. I just don’t I’m not interested in it. Again, I made this point before, but four playoff wins in the last 25 years, and um they’re they’re now guaranteed this year to win exactly as many playoff games as they won last year. That that the that you know, time that people were pining for, whatever, I want to win a Super Bowl. I want to be able to compete for that. If if it’s not McCarthy, I I do believe you have to give them another year. Um but then I I I would advocate to go back into the first round well with the quarterback until you hit on one. And 2027 is the year to be to be shopping on one. You’ll be trading your assets for a veteran quarterback just to try to save Kevin Oonnell’s job. If if that’s what that ends up for one year, a one-off. You want to put yourself in a scenario you trade a day two pick for Mac. Jones, then the year later you have to pay him 30 plus million dollars. Why? The best case scenario is he’s another Kirk Cousins for the next five, six years. We love the collective we loves stability at quarterback more than the hunt for a championship. It’s it’s it’s a triedand-true formula here in Minnesota. And but you bring up good points. There there’s a there’s other things I want to throw at Thor here um before this Thursday episode comes to an end, including maybe a bonus ask Thor anything question. Maya Mackey has a ask Thor anything question here. I’m putting you on the spot here, but I got the prize picks app open where the Purple Daily audience can win real money this football season. You select between two and six players. It takes less than 60 seconds. Um, how are are you are you deep into your your weekend college um more or less work yet? Thor, is there any players that I should look at right now on practice I don’t want to give it away, but I will take the opportunity to do a cheap plug for uh tomorrow’s uh Thor Talks Purple where we’re going to be jumping into the all the offensive player props with with our friend Leighton from the Before We Die uh uh show. But uh every single one, both the Vikings and the Commanders going through every single one. Everyone out there knows what a sicko I am for that stuff. So just excited that that these gentlemen over here gave me the opportunity to do a full show, full breakdown of all the player props in a Vikings game. So that’ll be Thor Talks Purple tomorrow here. There’s a big game tonight. Cowboys and Lions Thursday Night Football. Jared Goff 252.5 is the pass yards number. Select more or less um between two and six players. A bajillion different stats to choose from. And when you download the prize pick app, you can use the code purple daily to get $50 in lineups when you play just $5. That’s code purple daily for $50 in lineups. Prize pick. It’s good to be right. MSP plumbing, heating, and air conditioning too powering this episode. Judge, checking out my phone right now, boys. It is 5° above. That’s right. The cold is here and the cold is here to stay. And as people know, heating systems in our fine state, they run much longer per season than in most states. and any inefficiencies, they’re going to get multiplied and that’s going to lead to uh significantly higher bills. Reduce those inefficiencies and the risk of breakdowns in the cold by calling my friends at MSP Plumbing, Heating, and Air to have your systems checked out. A furnace or boiler that goes on the fritz can quickly become a safety hazard. And the risk is frozen or burst pipes. You don’t want that. So, don’t forget that MSP is also your local Carrier dealer. MSP and Carrier, a winning combination. 651-6154292 for MSP plumbing, heating, and air or check out their website, callms MSP.com. Uh but folks, this cold is serious business. So, make sure that your heating systems are firing at peak efficiency. Yeah. Uh hey, Omaha Stakes, here’s a here’s a great holiday gift idea or just your own holiday cooking idea. Omaha Stakes has their sizzle all the way sale happening right now where you can get 50% off sitewide. omahastakes.com and our listeners at Purple Daily get an extra $35 off with the promo code purple at checkout. So 50% off sitewide and an extra $35 off when you use the code purple at checkout. Omaha stakes.com. Uh my wife and I have enjoyed. We had box upon box of Omaha steaks uh over the last couple months. We’re out now and so I got to get over to Omaha Stakes.com. Not just the steaks, chicken wings, smashburgers, deli style franks. Uh yeah, it’s a it’s a cavalcade of amazing things at omahastaks.com. Code purple at checkout. Okay, I’m I’m going to shine another flashlight on someone here. Okay. And this one might hit close to home because he’s had that flashlight shined on him at times. Um Jordan Addison, what do you uh Nice, Phil. Wow. Sir, do you know how fast this Yeah. You know how faster we were going? That’s why Phil is the best in the business. Yeah. Well, thank you. It’s a cheap shots maybe. But Thor, remind me. Um, let me clean out my ear for a second. What did you say when you talked about collegewide receivers coming out of the draft evaluation process when they have a what percentage drop rate you redline them? 10. If it’s over I thought it was 10. Okay. So, is it problematic that Jordan Addison, I’m not saying long-term necessarily, but like in a year where your offense has bottomed out, it’s a disaster, and you need pieces around these young quarterbacks to just rise up, do their jobs at a minimum. That Jordan Addison has a 15% drop rate, which is the fourth worst mark among all qualified wide receivers with at least 50 targets. He is one of the most drophappy wide receivers in the NFL through the first what three months of the 2025. And also he starts off the season self-inflicted three-game suspension because he couldn’t get his act together off the field. And then he had that weird game where he was like MIA in Europe for a night. They couldn’t find him and his like phone ran out of charge or whatever the story was. I guess my question is Jordan Addison, what are we doing this season? What is going on? To me, this is troubling. I hope uh Rolando Addison’s not watching this because on Twitter sometimes when people get after Jordan, he he gets after them. But I to me this is th this is troubling. You obviously starting out the year uh with and and by the way in in August, we go back to August, that’s the last time we had good indication from Jud remember in uh training camp in August, the the connection between McCarthy and Addison and that’s you know going well. But then the three-game suspension and you come off of it and it’s like it’s just been sort of lethargic outside of his night before the in Europe, you know, whatever happened there and, you know, and all of a sudden, you know, with with that whole thing. But, uh, yeah, where is his head at? And then when he’s on the field, um, there’s been times where it seemed not getting proper depth on a route or not getting out of a route break quick enough or that the the timing being a little bit off or the the just rope drops when he is open and the ball hitting him on the hands. It’s not just McCarthy. Uh Addison has been an equal opportunity dropper. Um and you know and and so for and by by the way I have to say this too for the folks out there that like oh McCarthy throws the ball too hard you know and this stuff like to to absolve the guys that are dropping it then why did the Michigan receiving core that didn’t have any good NFL players on why could they catch the ball from from McCarthy the drop rates there were not nearly what they’ve been uh with the Vikings and obviously Jordan Addison has been a primary uh sort of culprit of that and yeah I I am troubled by it both off the field stuff this stuff on the field Jordan Addison you you got to come in next year with your had screwed on straight and that’s a big year for your future, you know, obviously as well. It’s Thursday, so if you guys don’t mind, I would like to take this conversation to a place of reckless speculation. Oo, reckless speculation. Please do. So, we are rightfully so all fixated on Justin Jefferson. How do you feel about what’s going on? You know, we know you’re frustrated. Please go off. You know, please, I’m from from such and such of network. Please exclusively tell me how mad you are. And Justin’s done a great job of being a good soldier. Not has not done that. Say it into my lapel. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly right, Justin. Just you and me, baby. I’ll buy you a beer. But anyway, um let’s talk about Jordan. Okay. Because I think so on a lot of teams, he would be, I believe, or he would be slated as the number one receiver. And Jordan seems to me to be a lot more of a wild card. Now, now he’s sort of a quiet guy at times, but you know, Jefferson gets it. I don’t know that Jordan does. As we talked about, he’s had his off the- field problems. I would love to know what’s going on behind the scenes with him because he seems to me to be a lot more of the guy who would go in and say, “I think you should trade me.” Like, I think Justin’s frustrated and I think he’s expressed that, right? But we’ve sort of slept on Jordan because it’s like, “Well, he’s the number two and you’re sort of dropping balls and you’re not that great.” and I don’t think he sees it that way. So, I think there’s a conversation about Jordan’s future here, not just based on the off the- field stuff now, but how he has processed this, which I feel like has just been completely forgotten about because he’s playing with a generational talent as a teammate at wide receiver. And the unfortunate thing is I don’t think you can trade him this off season unless you want to just sell low on the asset, you know? I mean, that’s something that I wouldn’t do. I I don’t think that that Quy would uh either. I wouldn’t think. Um, but like I you know what I would tell him if if I’m crazy or whatever and Jordan Addison walks into my office after the regular season’s like I want to be traded. Bro, you you need to rebuild your value by playing well before I can do that. That’s what it is. I I’m not trading you for You’re not getting a first round pick for Jordan Addison this off seasonason if you trade him after the way he played with the off-field stuff. It’s not happening. I’m not trading Jordan Addison for a day two pick. Sorry pal. you’re coming back next year and you’re playing another year on on that rookie contract and if you play well next year, we will oblige your trade request next off seasonason, but it it’s not happening this offseason. You’ve tanked your own value too much. Yeah, that’s a great I mean, if you’re if you’re another team, we can sit here and try to justify and validate on this end. It’s well, you know, he got the suspension, but it was from an incident that was like a year and a half ago and he didn’t get arrested in the last year and a half. I know he disappeared for a night mysteriously and got suspended by his own team for a drive. It’s like if you’re a team on the outside, all you see is two reckless off the- field things in three years, a three-game suspension, and a down season this year that you could chalk up a little bit to bad quarterback play and whatever. Uh but yeah, like I’m with you. If you if if you put he he is undoubtedly at his peak, I think one of the 15 to 20 best wide receivers in the NFL, which would be worth a first round pick if all these other things didn’t exist. But yeah, I think Thor’s right. Even if you wanted to trade him, if you were kind of sick of the high jinks or whatever, it’s like you’d be selling low. You’d be selling him for 50 cents or 75 cents on the dollar and is that good front officing at that point. Unless you feel like extracting him from the team in some way is making the collective better, but I don’t know that there’d be any concrete proof of that. That’d be the only thing with it that you because you would have your receiving core already. Look at it going into next year. Obviously the gone already. We assume that Jaylen Naylor is going to sign somewhere else because they’re they’re not going to have the cap space to do that if you want to plug a couple of your other holes. And I think we assume that the Vikings will use probably a mid-round pick on a wide receiver. Um, and this is why I want to see more Ty Felton down the stretch here. Can Ty Felton next year function as a wide receiver three? Is it possible? If it’s not, like we need to know that, right? Like so I’m cool with Ty Felton going out there and failing. I I need to see it, right? what utility can can we have from it? But uh if you end up trading Jordan in addition to that, right, your whole receiver core is hollowed out, right? And then you know you’re bringing back McCarthy if you do like and now you know I don’t know if I would be comfortable with that. So for for me Addison, you need to screw your head on straight this off seasonason. Come back ready to work next year. You have a good season. If you still want to get traded, we can do it then because then we could trade you for a better pick and what’s going to be a better draft class 2027 and also what I believe could be a historic wide receiver class in 2027. But yeah, Addison, he he got to stay through next year just because it’s unless it’s something so horrible in the building where it’s like toxic and we have to get this guy out, which I have not heard. Um then yeah, I I I would keep him around for another year. Hey, Phil. Uh Thor on football on Tuesday, he he was joined by a guest. I forget his name, but he’s sort of a schle. Um, but on the the Tuesday show, Thor Thor had some great points that I loved and and this sort of dubtales into letting McCarthy improve, but not putting the premium on wins, which I have firmly believe you should not be doing right now. And Thor’s point was let’s take any of those, you know, the Tai Feltons, the Jay Wards, let’s play them like like Yeah, exactly. play the kids, which I absolutely love because one, it gives them experience and you need to see them playing and two, again, okay, if McCarthy can show improvement, you can lose and not take it personally. That’s it. Yeah. And next year with all, you know, the the turnover that this roster going to see, you know, we keep talking about that all this different turn stuff and and and and the guys that are going to get released and restructured and like this sort of stuff. So, you’re going to have all these open roster spots. You have to know the guys that are on your team that are under contract for next year. What roles could they realistically play? The the other point I made on that show is is you know the the the thing I went to the secondary and the thing of like you didn’t get the other boundary cornerback. So you had to move Murphy to a boundary quarterback out of the nickel. Then you had to move Mattelis from the move piece role to that. I don’t want to see that again on next year’s roster where you basically sort of just misjudge the situation that you’re in. So, you either play someone out of position or you pull them above their import, right? Like I don’t want them to go into the offseason and then and then just sort of like on a hope and a dream be like, “Oh, well, Tai, who we took in the third round last year, he going to be wide receiver three if if we don’t see him down the stretch here.” How would you know that he could function as that? And all of a sudden, you’re into the regular season. It’s like, “Oh, yeah, actually, he can’t.” Or you’re in late August and you’re like, “We got to trade a fourth round pick for Adam Thielen again,” or, you know, the equivalent or or whatever. I I want to have a better idea of those young guys that are under contract for next year. What roles could they actually play? Shine a a realistic flashlight on that question. Yeah. And and I I I do agree that like even more so than ever, the priority is finding out, you know, what you have going into the offseason, the next five games, but I also don’t think that should give permission to the play caller to well, we’re looking to find out what we have and McCarthy, so let’s unleash 50 passes and see what let’s ramp it up even more in the passing game. I I feel like the number one thing they’ve done to sort of sabotage now a lot of this I I don’t want to take it all off McCarthy like it’s your career too and and at some point the NFL moves fast and you might not always have perfect coaching infrastructure. You got to figure it out too. So I don’t want to completely exonerate the subject here. Um, but I think the lack of a running game. Like you’re taking a a fish out of water in a lot of ways here. And one of the big things he had was a running game at Michigan and like you’ve taken that away more than almost any other team. So I’d like to see some of that. There are a couple of stray asking questions here. We’ll get to one of them for sure. Um, presented by Mystic Lake. Jud Mystic Lake that Hop House awesome spot. We’re hoping to do some more stuff with them too in the coming months. Absolutely. Um, and as I have been talking about now for quite some time, Hop House is the newest bar at Mystic Lake, and we are talking about a sports bar that is absolutely top-notch. TVs all over the place. Most importantly, turn to the correct games. That’s right. You go there, you can watch all of the games. I keep saying this, but you know, if you’re a Vikings fan, and yes, you you want to watch the Vikings, but you also are trying to watch the rest of the league, watch the games, the Hop House has all of the games on. Also, um, The Hop House has live music on weekends every Friday and Saturday night starting at 10 p.m. Great bands, great drinks, no cover for that. Uh, make a weekend of it. Stay out at Mystic Lake and make sure you check out the Hop House. Uh, okay. Ask Thor anything here to to wrap this episode. Let me pull up the list. Riley wants to know cuz you know what? If you go back to the 2024 draft and uh there were kind of two I guess two quarterback options there when Pennix came off the board. JJ McCarthy is the one that the Vikings chose. Bo Nicks winds up going to the Broncos and the the there’s been some ups and downs with Bo Knicks and Shawn Payeyton does a great job with his system and scheme making things sort of merging things together with what Bon Knicks is good at. So I’ll I’ll start with that preface. Um, Riley says, “This whole Boon Knicks thing is driving me nuts. He’s won eight or nine, I think it’s nine straight games. Uh, could you ask Thor his opinions on Bo Knicks the last couple years? This has nothing to do with JJ McCarthy. I still think JJ will be good, but I think Bo will be real good.” And I’ll add, the Broncos are winning a bunch of games right now. Their defense is awesome, too. Uh, your thoughts on Bo Knicks? Bonk’s been better than than I thought he’d be, but he did get into the perfect situation uh with with Shawn Peyton. Obviously, Bon’s had better uh reading stuff before uh the snap um and then getting the ball out quick. Um, I do not believe that he would have been a fit for Kevin Oonnell’s offense for that reason. That when when Bonx got in trouble in college, it was uh prior to the time he was at Oregon when he was at Auburn when it was more dropback concepts and having to read the the coverage and then, you know, you you would have throwing down field concepts and that’s where you could confuse Bonicks and stuff like that. If you give him the answer pre- snap, um, he he’s going to run that efficiently for you get the ball out quick and stuff like that. lot, you know, a lot of the the short passes and stuff like that. He they will take their shots downfield, of course, but in the the Denver system, it’s more the stuff that is setting that up as opposed to you sort of lead the the dance with that. Um, if Bonix had gone to a different team, I don’t think he, you know, he would look quite the same as he looks right now. And for a guy of his age, you know, he’s fine. I mean, 19th, uh, I think in PFF grade right now. I’ll add he’s 20th in QBR, 27th in passer rating, 28th in yards per attempt and he’s what two two years two plus years older than McCarthy and he had yeah it’s not that great two two more seasons in college. So I mean he’s he’s a little bit further along in the developmental thing and he found an offense you know that that that suited his skill set. Um but yeah like again I he has been better to this point in the NFL uh than than I thought he’d be but I don’t see a dynamic talent there. I see a a point guard that that shuttles things off. And Shawn Peyton in a different way from Kevin Okonnell, but he’s a Shawn Peyton’s a system guy too is is like like I said, his system is not similar to Kevin Okonnell’s, but it’s the same sort of thing of like he wants you to run the system, whatever. And Bo Knicks is was was a really good fit for Shawn Peyton’s system. But yeah, defense um is is carrying the day there a lot of the times for Denver. Their Denver’s defense is allowing only 18 points per game I in their first whatever 11 or 12 games. and coming up with big plays. Like y’all see on Sunday night when uh the team we’re about to play on Sunday, uh the Commanders are down there at the goal line and had a shot to win that game. And they had an open receiver, Cliff Kingsbury, uh you know, and I’ll be talking more about this on tomorrow’s episode of Thor Talks Purple because when you you talk about props, you have to talk about projected game scripts. How could this thing go? The one offense against the defense, how’s the matchup, and then how you know how the players sort of flower out of that. But Cliff Kingsbury was in his bag in that game. Um, you were just seeing all kinds of different stuff and he schemed open a perfect thing at the end and Mariota could just not get the ball over the defender. He tried to kind of loft it up there and the defender batted it away to win that game. But yeah, it’s going to be interesting watching Cliff Kingbury offense. I would just I would just be careful with like the the the Bonick’s wandering eyes that some Vikings fans have because you look at some of the back of the football card numbers on him and obviously any way you measure it, he’s he’s played in a bunch more games cuz he’s been healthy and he has been more productive than the six games of JJ McCarthy and all of those things are 100% fair. Uh but in terms of like major regret, I’ll go over these again. He is now he is 30 games into his career. Bon Nicks and he ranks 27th in completion percentage among quarterbacks, 28th in yards per attempt, 27th in passer rating, 20th in QBR, 20th in PFF grade. So it’s it’s not like if if if you want to have regret, it’s not giving up the extra pick for Drake May would be more the like like a guy who might win MVP of the NFL if if you’re going to have some regret. I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s bonex that I I would agree with that. Yeah. And and that’s I actually not only that but that’s also the scenario that it was right like and and the you know the the reports with obviously the Vikings engaged there and there’s questions as to whether there was something a framework that had been agreed upon and then you know there there’s an idea that the Patriots then upped the price uh later on or whatever happened with that but those were the two sort of roads right like um that bon thing I don’t think was it’s not at least I I haven’t heard that that the Vikings were sniffing around bonex So I I I think yeah the the two roads it was McCarthy or the trade up for for drag man. Can I throw something in retrospect again at you guys that’s probably the biggest bummer in that entire draft. It’s the fact that the Vikings when Cousins got hurt instead of accepting their fate which is you probably should trade to Neil Hunter. Your season’s probably done. Like Josh Dos is a fun story but he’s not going to save the day. So, the Vikings won three more games, including two consecutively against the Falcons and the Saints, and then that atrocious game against the Raiders. Let’s say they win the Raiders game, but let’s say they don’t beat the Falcons and they don’t beat beat the Saints. Um, in that case, I believe they would have tied the Chargers uh for the they either would have had the fifth or sixth pick. And you know what would have been a lot easier in dealing with the Patriots taking to them a pick that was two picks behind them instead of the 11th pick. So this again where fans are like I just want to win the games. You don’t want them to lose the games. That was the that that is among the most destructive seasons to have won those meaningless games when your team stunk regardless if you had just allowed football nature to take its course. you I think you I think it’s very plausible to trade with the Chargers or I’m sorry with the Patriots works if you’re sitting there at like let’s say five. I totally agree and something that I was saying in the moment uh at the time when Cousins went down I advocated exactly for the the Denil Hunter thing and then I I I think the joke that I was making at the time which wasn’t a joke is um uh you can get you can squeeze some real value out of Jiren Hall merely by just starting him down the stretch and he will drive you to what the actual season goal has become as high up there on the drop board as you can get and to your point would have made it a lot lot easier. Um, I heard the Patriots liked uh McCarthy obviously, you know, they, you know, obviously liked May a lot more uh to the point, you know, turning that down, but like the thing of like we we would want to be in position to take that secondary option if we traded down. Complicating factor as far back as the Vikings were with uh with the Giants in between. It turned out there was another mystery grenade team in there that we could not have seen coming with the Falcons. But I think everyone the one that they were is are the Giants here going to step in and uh take McCarthy. It was a you know a team that I think JJ had said before that during the process that the Giants had at least shown the most sort of overt uh interest in him. So there was you know that that whole scenario too but it’s a great point John if you had traded Denil Hunter right then and you’ve been like we’re going with Jiren Hall the rest of the season no matter what we just want to you know and you can depict it you know you don’t have to and you shouldn’t go out and say we’re going to tank the rest of the year. just say we want to get a look at we want to look get a look at the young quarterback see what happens you know and yada yada yeah folks Thor Istrom from Thor talks purple find on Apple Spotify and also the score YouTube channel 5 days a week off season came early for this Vikings team but we’ll still be obviously recapping game to game what everything means but I spent last night getting the dusting off the old offseason blueprint spreadsheet for maybe firing up soon always started filing in the cap numbers, getting situations. Give me 0 and5 the rest of the way. Give me loss after loss after loss. We certainly could use that. Interestingly, you know, ju just closing out the show with something that you had brought up before about sort of the the betting market. It’s sort of interesting. Uh prior to the the games on Sunday, the Vikings in the early look ahead lines were point and a half favorite over Washington. Then when it flipped over Sunday night, they put the lines back out. Now it was Washington minus one and a half. Seen some very interesting movement here the last four days on that line. The Vikings are now two and a half point favorites. So you’ve now gone the other way uh with it. There’s obvious early week money that has poured in on the Vikings here. I’ve also seen some moves on on some of those prop lines. Uh Jefferson has gone up I believe four or five yards from where it opened. Whereas our boy Jordan Addison, unfortunately, he he opened low 40s and he has dropped into the the high30s, which would probably correct market movement as well. But at least the the betting market appears to believe that the Vikings are going to hold serve on Sunday. We’ll see. We shall see. Thoren Istrom, the sports dad judge, the actual dad, Dex, and I am Phil Mackey. And we just want the Vikings to win a Super Bowl before we die. See you guys.

Minnesota Vikings leadership plans after the 2025 season; Should the Vikings make changes in the football operation department; What else do the Vikings need to see from JJ McCarthy this season; Plus, Vikings feedback on Jordan Addison, Justin Jefferson and more with Thor Nystrom on Purple Daily.

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